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Often, a GM wants to give a handout to players that
represents a real document they find in a dungeon or
library. Here are some ways to use presentation and writing
style to convey information without flat-out telling the
PCs. They let you add non-obvious details, without being
pedantic, requiring a dozen knowledge or lore checks, or
boxing yourself into metagame thinking. Best of all, they
encourage players to figure things out for themselves - and
sometimes fool themselves, too!

Get Creative With Fonts

Most word-processor programs today offer hundreds of fonts,
and a good number of them are script, calligraphy,
engraving, etc. They may also let you stretch, compress,
or otherwise manipulate the base fonts. Use a consistent
font for each major NPC. To throw a layer of confusion in,
use one font for a scribe (or a guild of scribes) who may
write documents for many different NPCs. Let the PCs try to
match up fonts and determine common sources of documents.

Use cryptic shorthand for notes that aren't intended to be
shared beyond a small circle of people:

Refer to people by a single initial

Use nicknames and "street-names"

Create some "inside jokes"

Use code words

Use symbols that mean something to the group

[Comment from Johnn: alchemists were masters at hiding
their recorded knowledge from the public and their
competitors by writing in obscure codes. Check out this
site for alchemy info:
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/home.html ]

Use simplistic language for letters that are going to be
read by creatures with substandard intelligence (i.e. write
only in the present tense, use short sentences, don't use
pronouns - "When Orcs steal horses and give to Grigor, then
Grigor give gold to Orcs.").

For ancient documents, use an archaic style and unfamiliar
words. Remember how strange Charles Dickens and William
Shakespeare sometimes seem? Dig out a thesaurus or good
dictionary and find unusual spellings and synonyms. Use a
consistent style for each time period or culture.

Buy different colored papers to represent regular paper,
parchment, papyrus, leather, clay tablets, or other types of
writing materials. You can get packs of 10 or 20 sheets of
very nice, sturdy paper for just a few dollars at a copy
store or office supply store.

If you have access to a color printer, use different colored
inks within documents. For example, Medieval manuscripts and
Chinese calligraphy both used red ink as a way to highlight
significant words, in the same way that we use underlines,
bold, and italics today.

Many people in a fantasy setting are marginally literate:
use wingdings and other symbols to accommodate this.

Remember the Greek letters used in math and science, or the
alchemical symbols for the planets and elements? These
types of symbols are especially appropriate to represent
months, geographical places, compass directions, or common
types of goods. An inventory sheet or caravan manifest can
seem like incomprehensible gibberish to a stranger, but even
the simplest peasant who knows the symbols will be able to
read it.

A royal message or writ always comes with seals, ribbons,
and so on. Dig out your supply of gift-wrap materials and
use the ribbons, colored tape, stamps, stencils, etc. Be
consistent with colors and styles, so that they correspond
with the heraldic conventions you use. Let the characters
glimpse a document for just a moment in a courier's pouch -
if they're good, they'll deduce who's written it just by
noticing which ribbons it carries.

King Arthur never used an aluminum briefcase or plastic
page-protectors, and neither should you. Let the amount of
damage to the document represent both its age and the
conditions it has been stored in. Degrade documents by
folding back and forth until they are about to fall apart on
the crease.

Make them partially illegible by using an
ordinary eraser, soap and water, or cleaning fluids to
smudge, smear, and deface them. Rip and crumple, tear off
corners, spill coffee and tomato juice on the paper. Soak
in salt water to simulate a sea voyage.

Dicebag. You can roll any dice, in any combination, any
number of times.

On top of all this, Todd is offering 25% off the price of
his program for a limited time to Tips subscribers! There's
a freebie evaluation version available too, so you can try-
before-you-buy. You can find out more right here:

If you have any question on how to start a Vampire session,
start with feeding. This is when vampires venture out into
the night to hunt. They stalk, corner, coerce, or seduce a
mortal then drink their blood. In most games and vampire
literature (like in the Dracula novel), the mortal is
weakened but not slain. Feeding scenes shouldn't take
forever and are normally run one character at a time.

Don't let the players be afraid to feed! Don't let them get
squeamish and say neutral things like, "I take 3 Blood
Points from the dancer." Make them describe the scene. Where
do they bite the victim? What do they do if the victim
struggles?

If a character 'banks' or drinks from a stored source of
blood like a blood bag, be sure to make it painfully boring,
dreary and distasteful. Describe what it's like for the
hunters out among the clubs or the lovers in their beds.

Feeding is the essential act for vampires. It doesn't have
to be Gothic or punk. But it does have to do with an undead
parasite stealing a little bit of life from a victim ... and
that's a good way to set the mood for a Vampire session.

When I first encountered the problem of players not
understanding me when I gave a description I used this as a
reason to go and sharpen my verbal sword. Now my players
understand me, and we have a method of mapping that works
out well for everyone.

First, as GM, I will not map for the players, I have my
hands full doing GM things. So, I have the players use lines
and boxes for their maps. Let's face facts here, PCs are not
running around with tape-measures viewing the "fill-in-the-
blank" from a topological view.

So, I use descriptions like "you enter a vast vaulted
chamber", "the door opens into a modest cell", "you find
yourselves looking on to a room of moderate size with ...",
you get the idea. The "mapper" of the group simply draws a
box or rectangle, hexagon, etc., for the room. For the
hallways and passages, he uses lines with off-shoot branches
being denoted with a simple stroke of the pencil.

This also means that you DO NOT NEED graph paper as this
works best on blank paper. And, after all, what is the PCs'
map for? Simple, to get your butts out of a place no real
sane person would go into in the first place. That and to go
back to a room with interesting items and/or money!!!

The PCs' map does not have to be a carbon copy of the GM's
as long as it works.

I have solved the mapping problem by making a copy of the
dungeon map, cutting out the various rooms, and sticking
them to index cards. I then hand the cards to the players
one by one. In the case of "secret" doors and rooms, I edit
the picture before putting it on the card. Using heavy
black magic marker, it's a simple matter to create 'maplets'
that only show what I want them to show.

In the Player Feedback Supplemental #1, someone suggested
punishing a player who doesn't behave properly. This is a
mistake I made when I was a brand-new DM, but out-grew
almost immediately -- it is just plain inappropriate to
punish players for pretty much anything game-related.

Not only does it almost never get the desired response, but
it ruins the evening for all the other players, too, to see
their buddy get squashed by the DM. It *NEVER* adds to the
fun of the game. Reward the good stuff, don't reward the
less-good stuff, and allow the game & players to evolve.
Players WILL eventually modify their behaviour to get the
rewards.

Here's another thing -- if you find yourself frustrated
because you can't get your players to "play right", maybe
you're "DMing wrong." Ask them, after the session is over.

Maybe even end 20 minutes early (pick a point in the game
that makes sense, of course), and just say "Hey, guys -- I
sorta think of the game like this , but it seems
that you guys maybe aren't into that . Should I maybe be planning
these sessions to be a little different? What do you guys
want to see here?"

Then let them talk. Don't get defensive, don't try to
convince them that your way is right. Don't complain about
all the time and energy you put into trying to create this
really fun thing -- just listen to what they say. Ask them
to clarify parts you don't get. Say "is that really fun? is
that what you guys want to do more of?", but not in a
derogatory way -- in a "we can do that, if you want" way.

Then think about it for a day or two. See if there's not
some way to do what you'd been thinking AND what your
players say they think is fun.

The next session, try to open with things "their way", and
only occasionally work in "your way" stuff. See if it
meshes. See how they like it.

After the session, ask if they liked that better. If so,
ask what they'd think about a little more of your-way mixed
in with their-way. Etc. Ask what they'd think about
alternating sessions and a 2nd campaign -- one your way, one
their way. Would anyone come? Would that be ok for a
change of pace? Etc.

I have subscribed to your magazine for a while now, and have
found it very helpful.

I'm sure that most DMs know of munchkins - a character that
is overpowered for their level of experience due to DM
leniency or whatever. I recently began DMing for players
who had mostly gamed before, but all in different campaign
worlds. Unfortunately, several of them turned out to be
"munchkins".

I required that all of them start out as first-level
characters, rather than giving in to "But I already have
this great character..." demands. However, several of my
players are playing as though their characters are higher
level. Most of the plot/story lines are not affected, but
the players are almost too smart for their own good where
traps are concerned.

I responded with a twist on the standard trap. I upped the
level a bit on the traps I had scattered throughout my
dungeons to cater to those who thought they could charge
right through, and I also provided "clues" to what was up
ahead, for those who were legitimately stumped.

Set somewhere before each trap is a small plaque with the
letters FLW, followed by a quote, on it. FLW stands for
Famous Last Words, and the quote can come from any of a
half-dozen RPG sites, (my fav. is Rondak's Portal,
http://www.rondaksportal.com ) or from quotes made in previous games.

Each quote has something to do with the trap up ahead. The
PCs don't yet know anything more, other than a plaque
precedes a trap, and I have caught them with both insanely
simple traps (pull the lever and a block falls on your head)
and incredibly complex ones.

The players now get terribly nervous any time they run
across a plaque, or even a note or poster, anywhere.